When Brie lands a spot on Cheese Whiz, a cheese-themed cooking competition, the last thing she expects is to run into Colby Jackson, the man who left her heart with more holes than Swiss cheese. ~~~ It was supposed to be simple. Enter the contest, win the prize money, open her own restaurant. Easy peasy, extra cheesy. So of course Colby freaking Jackson and his smug, entirely too sexy face just had to come back into Brie's life like an extra stinky wheel of limburger cheese. Surrounded by fierce competitors and legendary amounts of dairy, Brie and Colby exchange barbs sharper than any cheddar. Yet, as the competition heats up, Brie quickly discovers the mozzarella isn't the only thing melting. Against her better judgment, Colby is once again worming his way into her heart. Will Brie find a whey to make things work between them, or will he leave her feeling bleu? 🧀 Rivals to lovers 🧀 Second chance romance 🧀 All puns are fully intended Using prompts 29 and 89 for ONC 2026! Cover by @-DeeIsDead-

An average Wattpad reader winds up in a story―and a sauna. One pair of smoldering eyes and one fire extinguisher later, she has met her male love interest, learned that he's a billionaire mafia werewolf and that she's a millionaire vampire werewolf, and chaos ensues. Will the enemies-to-lovers trope work its magic? Or is she doomed to a failed plot in a story that will forever be left unfinished? Enjoy the insanity. She won't. (But I will complete her story because I'm not that mean of an author.)

There is a boy who can tame us. He hurts as we hurt, laughs as we laugh, fades as we fade. 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, we tell him. 𝘞𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶. But he does not stay, cannot stay. They take him from us, take him far away, and we mourn. WE ARE IN AGONY. THEY COME AND THEY COME AND THEY HURT AND WE HURT AND WE RAGE AGAINST OUR BINDS. STEP ASIDE, BOY; YOU ARE NOT THE ONES WE WILL DESTROY. Yet you tell us to quiet, and you stroke our hair, and you say that everything will be okay, that it's over, that you know our pain and you see it, feel it, but we don't have to hurt like this anymore. WE ARE ANGRY AND WE ARE IN PAIN but you are there and we don't destroy. You are not exempt. They will do the same to you as they have done to us. I say to you, 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦, 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘦, 𝘨𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬! but you do not. We need to go, we need to be there, or they'll pass us by and we'll never go home. Many parts of us have no home, but you do, and you 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯. 𝗪𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂, 𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗕𝗼𝘆. 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗮𝗱𝗲. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘁. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲. 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘂𝘀? 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘴 is a story of traumatized boy treading the line of losing himself, told from the memories around him. --ཐི༏ཋྀ-- ONLY ON WATTPAD. DO NOT USE TO TRAIN AI. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

|ONC PROMPT 78 "You begin to realize that nothing is quite what it seems."| In the hidden chambers of an ancient elven court, every decision is a matter of life, law, and secrecy. Alliances are forged in shadow, and even the smallest disruption can ripple into catastrophe. For the elves, maintaining order is more than duty-it is survival. Two council members, the steadfast High Justicar Cirmon Shadowbane and the perceptive clerk Belvedere, stand at the heart of this fragile balance. As threats emerge and secrets surface, they are forced to confront the limits of their authority, the weight of their choices, and the consequences of silence. In a world where magic, morality, and power collide, no law can predict every outcome, and no justice comes without cost. Cover designed by @raizelrose3

*Note: This is based off an old and discontinued story that had its outline scrapped and reworked to fit the prompts for the ONC. Essentially, a new book for this competition. Only the core concept, title and the protagonist's name are kept the same.* ----- A ribbon, a hair-clip, a pen, a notebook and a radio, held in the arms of a sixteen year old girl... ... It's been four hundred of years since The Rot ravaged the world and sent people downward with its decaying touch, four hundred years since humanity has inhaled even a breath of fresh air and twenty years since the first fifth-generation child was born in the shelters deep underground. And now, beneath the poisoned earth at the edge of the world, only six of them remain living in the last surviving shelter, the last surviving Lifelight illuminating a darkened board. For the rest were claimed by The Rot. Protected at all costs, older generations shields the worst of the consequences, the worst of the panic, but truth cannot be hidden forever. With increasing tensions and increasing crime, it becomes clear that there are only two outcomes: to die in strife or to die in silence. That is, until an inexplicable hope presents itself in the form of a radio transmission originating from the single most uninhabitable place on Earth, the surface. But it's too late, too late for most, other than the most protected, the youngest, the fifth generation. The waiting game is over and now it's a race against time. Before The Rot reaches them, before they run out of supplies, the handful of survivors must reach out and find the source of the transmission. From this, there are only two possible results: death or a secured future.

Prompt #22 - Spring (new beginning, growth) Your book never found much success, but on a train ride you spot a stranger reading it with the biggest smile you've ever seen. Livia Moreau's forgotten novel *The Shadows of the Linden Tree* finds unexpected life when she notices a stranger on the train reading it with genuine joy. What begins as a chance encounter slowly rekindles her belief in her words-and in new possibilities. This is my first time participating in the Open Novella Contest and I'm so excited to share this story with you all! 🌱✨ #OpenNovellaContest2026 #ONC2026 #Contemporary #Romance #LiteraryFiction

In a ghost town where cornfields outnumber people, Lieutenant Gianna Park arrests the new guy, Nicolae Badea, for biting her on her first date. When bodies begin to surface-young men found mummified, bitten, and strangled-Gianna suspects the man she once handcuffed. Yet, the evidence refuses to align. The wounds are wrong. The hunger is deliberate. Eighteen years ago, a boy was killed and forgotten. Now the dead are coming back the same way. As Gianna uncovers a hidden world of vampires who police their own kind, she learns that monsters are not defined by blood but by what they choose to feed on. Nicolae Badea claims it was not desire on his part, but restraint. He survives by restraint, faith, and silence. The killer survives by power. Only one of them hunts humans. The Coffin of Nicolae is a gothic crime novel about addiction, romance, and the violence we excuse when it wears a human face-asking what justice means when the law has no language for the truth. And what waits inside Nicolae's coffin. *** Content Warning: This novel includes strong, explicit language and depictions of violence, sexual scenes that some readers may find offensive.

A rivalry steeped in salt, an adventure cursed to fail, and a love doomed from the start. A tale of the ocean, a mythical treasure, and a fantastical academy where stars, monsters, and the sea are all on the agenda.

If you got anyone to describe Jessie Reynolds-Somber in one word, it would be 'lucky.' She survived childhood leukemia (twice), has the best friend-slash-roommate in the world, and she's studying something she loves at the university she's forever adored. But not even November can describe why she feels so incomplete, as though she's forgotten to do something she'll never get a chance to do. Why she feels like she's failed---no, worse, like she's a failure.

Tris McCoy is having an uneventful summer. It's the summer before eleventh grade, and it's the last summer she has before she has to start worrying about driving, and college, and a career. With her mom being in the hospital and her dad enjoying the title of father out in Australia, she's left to spend the next six weeks alone. Until she (literally) stumbles across a stack of old letters from her pen pal, July Souders. July lives in British Columbia---four provinces away---but Tris knows of a camp she used to attend. Unwilling to spend the summer alone and desperate for any change, no matter the size, Tris sets off for summer camp.